Story and photos by Ray Mwareya Rudo Mazhande, 32, stands smiling in a warehouse among several hundred huge bars of green soap. A crisp, clean scent wafts through the air. This is Rudo’s factory, where she now employs seven people. And once you hear her story, it’s easy to see why she might be happy. Despite being a trained chemical engineer, Rudo struggled for years to use her skills. “I have never got a job in my field,” she says. “Because...
Story and photos by Cooper Inveen. It’s a sunny afternoon on Freetown’s sandy beachfront, and 11-year-old Fatima Morenike is eating ice cream with Agnes Mimi Bengali, a Sierra Leonean biologist. Over the last year, Fatima and Agnes have met twice a month to touch base and talk science. Fatima is one of two girls put forward by her school to take part in a mentorship program designed by STEM Women Sierra Leone – a local collective of 58 women in the...
This piece is part of a reporting partnership between ONE and Refugees Deeply. Fatuma Omar Ismail currently studies chemical engineering at the University of Toronto in Canada on a scholarship. But she spent most of her childhood in Dadaab, a complex of refugee camps in northern Kenya, near the border with Somalia, where much of her family still resides. Below, she describes the daily challenges she faced as a 12-year-old determined to change her future. The muezzin calls the...
Who is changing the game in Africa? That’s the question NewAfricanWoman magazine put to the public as they prepared to host the New African Woman Awards 2017 – an annual ceremony that honors and celebrates Africa’s most influential and impactful women. After weeks of nominations a special panel of judges took on the tough task of narrowing the candidates down to just twelve winners. Here are this year’s winners: New African Woman of the Year: Fatoumata Jallow-Tambajan, Gambia Vice-President of the...
Less than a month ago we celebrated International Women’s Day! This year’s theme was #BeBoldForChange and called on global citizens to advocate for a more equal, gender inclusive world. Even though there are so many incredible people working towards a more equal, gender inclusive world, there are still plenty of places around the globe where women are not granted the same rights as men. The organization Equality Now is dedicated to making discrimination against women history, and tracks laws—including the ones listed...
By Aaron Benavot, director of the GEM Report, UNESCO One answer: poverty. Despite every government in the world promising free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education to everyone, 130 million girls are out of school today. It’s difficult to comprehend what that means for each one of the one hundred and thirty million girl children and adolescents, but a new blog from the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report released for International Women’s Day helps to break down that number...
Pop quiz: what are the benefits of sending girls to school? You might answer that they will learn how to read, write and do arithmetic, all of which equip them to enter the workforce, earn an income, and contribute more to the economy … And you would be correct. But that’s only part of the answer. Beyond improving their knowledge, skills and earning potential, educating girls can have a big impact on their health, and the health of their...
130 million girls didn’t go to school today. Not because they didn’t want to, but because they weren’t given the chance. They are denied an education for a variety of reasons, from cultural norms and costs, to violence and extremism. The result is that these 130 million girls don’t have a fair chance to live a decent and productive life, and the entire world misses out by not benefitting from their potential. This is a global crisis—we need to sound the alarm...
The evidence that educating girls creates healthier, wealthier, fairer, and more stable communities is overwhelming—so why isn’t every girl getting a quality education? The barriers, particularly for girls in the poorest countries, are wide-ranging and complex but these are some of the most challenging: Cost The cost of supplies can limit girls access to education. Even in areas where school fees are non-existent, there’s still a price to pay. Students are often required to buy uniforms, transportation,...
Right now, our newsfeeds are packed with incredible stories of women taking action. To honor the persistence and drive of those women, we’re taking a look at some truly influential women’s rights activists: Suffragists around the world A 1915 photograph of large crowd of suffragists on Capitol steps, some with banners, one with American flag, some in academic gowns, overseen by two uniformed policemen. (Photo credit: Public domain/Wikimedia Commons) Suffrage has been a worldwide movement with countless determined...